Great idea, install without DDev?

Is this solved by 📌 Prompt to run ./launch-drupal-cms.sh is misleading when not using ddev Active ?

There is nothing in Drupal CMS that requires you to use DDEV, or that prevents you from using a runtime other than DDEV.

The reason we generally recommend DDEV, and why we document our support for it, is because it is the officially supported local development platform endorsed by (I think?) the Drupal core team. And it works really well - it sets up everything with minimal friction. So that, at least for now, is the runtime we prefer, and document as such.

But if you have PHP and Composer installed, and don't want to use DDEV, you can get Drupal CMS set up with just composer create-project drupal/cms, then point any PHP-ready web server at it. I myself use bare-metal PHP and Composer, combined with Laravel Valet, most of the time.

Adding additional runtimes (such as a custom Dockerfile) would create extra maintenance burden for us, and probably be jankier than something like DDEV, which is very well-supported, actively developed, and well-tested.

But there's nothing preventing you from getting it running in some custom way, if you're so inclined.

Therefore, I'm closing this issue out as "works as designed", but feel free to reopen if you think further discussion is needed.

@dave_______1 I am curious what you think we can do to update the existing language to make this more clear.

On the download page, we have:

Drupal CMS puts the power of Drupal into the hands of marketers, designers and content creators. You'll need php and composer to use the command below, or you can install with DDEV.

Which documentation led you to believe that you had to use DDEV? You are not the first person to provide this feedback and I would love to address it.

The composer prompt was not really clear/highlighted until recently. All emphasis was on DDEV. Now it is pretty visible I guess.

Thanks, if folks have further suggestions to improve the docs, please create a new issue.